This one was obligatory. You guys are gonna get bought by Russia. Kinda funny to have banking industry twice the size of your own country. Oh and didnt a lot of British people have their money deposited in Icelandic banks because of higher interest rates? Well they dont anymore...

No wonder you want to move to that self serving posicle. And lol at the Icelandic PM, they genuinely believe Russia want to help them out. Yeah right, when the fuck have Russia ever helped anyone without there being some sneaky fucking russian political thing at the helm?

Russia are just trying influence an buy as many friends as possible, and they'll make you jump through hoops now that they have you by the balls. Just wait. They'll probbly just use it asa base camp to plunder the North Pole.

I always thought of Iceland as pretty irrelevant and self serving anyway so good luck.

hold the phone, you're not implying that russia isnt doing this solely for humanitarian reasons?? ;)
Of course it's a part of Russia improving its image in the west, while also proving that in the midst of this economic crisis they have lots of money to spare, they're displaying great strength.

Any theories as to iceland having to pay russia back with in some sort of military purpose are fun and expected but ultimately paranoid, as people tend to be when talking about Russia. let's not forget iceland is a founding nato member.

it's just as fucking stupid as saying 'you live in one of the worst areas in the world' because someone states they live in London where they might be in Knightsbirdge (over statement but you know what I mean) as apposed to Hackney. Such statistics go by post code for a reason, you know them things called councils.

Iceland's bank got foreigners to deposit their saving their by promising high interests, eventually the banks worked with sums many times larger than Iceland's GNP.
Now with the crisis they lost money and don't have enough to cover all those savings, thus they are steering towards bankruptcy and because of their value might take country itself with them.
Ath this point it seems to be certain that foreigner's will loose part of their savings.

That said, I guess they made a lot of money through their banks when the times were good.

just to clarify there's no possibility of the country itself going bankrupt. The privately owned banks and the government are not the same, the government being completely debt free while the banks in over their head. The government will not take over the debts. Instead they have effectively nationalized two banks, much like we're seeing for example in holland, luxembourg and belgium. all saving accounts are assured, as they've done in germany, denmark and ireland etc..

as for russia, we indeed welcome our new overlord. together we shall plot to claim dominance of the north pole.

I was just quoting your prime minister on the bankruptcy part. But you did tie your currency to the Euro an dlocked the exchange rates for the time being, which is hardly a sign of strength.

Anyhow, as far as the international press goes the problem is not solved yet. Because the loan from Russia is not certain. And from what I have read the nationalisation did not go along with a security for foreign savings or other debts the banks have, just the national ones. Got any other link?

AS for your country being out of debt (which is of course a very good thing) I wonder whose taxes paid for that.

I don't know any numbers but I think that if those bank have a revenue several times that of you GNP they are probably also the biggest tax payers. So you actually profited from them and their inadequate risk management.

Of course the same goes for foreigners who wanted those 7% on their savings account.

just those that are guaranteed are really shit returns if anything at all.

or you could just spread multiple amounts of 50 thousand across different banks.

it's funny really as most of the problems in the country hit the lower and working classes more than those with money but this time it's those with the money that are actually in the shit unless you count those trying to get on the property ladder and the jumps in energy prices making everything expensive for everyone

they're guaranteed the money back that was lost providing it was no more than Ł50,000 (used to be Ł35,000 I think). I wouldn't class someone with Ł50,000 saved up working class really but that depends on the age I guess and work history but I'm being jamerio-esque here ;)

How do you think they will assure your savings? By printing more money? It's allready impossible to sell Icelandic currency because it's worthless, It's easier to sell some African currencys at the moment. So your savings are already gone and they are now looking at option to loan money from abroad to pay them. And who do you think will pay back that loan? So basically they are loaning you your own savings and making it look like they are doing you a favor.

they are already assured with the money they already have. iceland was and is still one of the richest countries in the world. that russian loan has nothing to do with our savings, the only purpose for that russian loan, if it happens, is to strengthen our foreign currency fund. If it happens, which it likely will, we will have one of the strongest foreign currency fund in the world by any measurement.

due to its size the currency got hit pretty hard in the current global economic turbulence. steps have been taken to prevent a meltdown, it will be some time and then it will rise rapidly again.

any armageddon news about our society you're reading is either wrongly interpreted by foreign media or hypothetical theories that by now are outdated.

15.5% inflation sounds bad enough to me,
and richest per capita and also that your country actually has money as opposed to debts, But in money available each year in absolut values you are far far from the top.
Which is why joining the Euro might be a godd idea at some point, even though right now it would hurt you like hell.

still having a energy industry like you have will be worth even more in the future so I don't see an armageddon.

I don't know what you're talking about with "money in absolute values." Joining EU is constantly discussed, what it would provide is a more stable currency. However I don't need to look far into the mainland to see what trouble banks in Germany, Holland, France are having. Last I knew those countries all had euros.

in absolute values I mean that the total sum of money you as a wealthy country have available to react, is very small compared to many poorer countries, just because you are small.

Yes, the European countries all have problems and not small ones either, but our (Germany's) inflation is "only" 3-4%, and our bigger banks all seems safe enough. Especially those where most people have their savings.

But the actual reason for joining would be that the Euro - countries have the financial power to defend their currency. Iceland on it's own does not.
Or in other words you will always (or at least much more likely) find a buyer for the Euro at an acceptable price, as opposed to the Krona.

Where does that money come from? Iceland already has huge liquidity problem even without this. Also your national debt is bigger than US in relation to your GDP according to Sedlabanki and Danske bank, so I dont know where you came up with govenment being debt free.

Not to mention that Sedlabanki has already doubled your base rates in less than 5 years.

Also your foreign currency fund right now is extremely limited so claims that this hypotethical loan would make it one of the strongest ones is gross overstatement.

Also your foreign currency fund right now is extremely limited so claims that this hypotethical loan would make it one of the strongest ones is gross overstatement.

Yes. The lack of foreign currency is the root of the bank's trouble. The current fragile state of global markets are causing mistrust and loan-lines got closed, making foreign currency(euros) hard to come by. However given that this 4 billion euro loan will take place, along with what the central bank already has and what norway, sweden and other friend nations are providing, we will, as I said, be stronger than most all countries in terms of foreign currency funds.

that's why I said "given it will take place", not that "it certainly will take place". The announcement was premature, in matters like these nothing is done until it's done. it seems Russia however are eager to prove their strength and with how they and our central bank talk, it is more likely than not that we will be in business. In any case, the country is not dependant on this loan, there are certainly more resources that could be taken should it fall apart.

Yes, and that would be mostly to deal with the acute threat of sovereign default instead of fixing anything. People of Iceland are really taking it up the ass on this one and they wont be the last ones for sure.

you still don't seem to understand that the government itself is in no danger, it is extremely wealthy and will have no problem guaranteeing saving accounts. it's the banks that owe the money and government has decided not to bail them out, or take over their debts. That is a very recent decision that guaranteed the country or its people will never go bankrupt. In that announcement by our pm it was made clear the risk of bankrupcy of our people or the government would never be taken. I see this has been widely misinterpreted by foreign media, causing your confusion.

Pension funds are an entirely different thing, with billions of euros and dollars in foreign accounts. It was briefly discussed to bring some of the foreign money home to further strengthen the currency funds. Withdrawing money from it to pay debts however, is not ever going to happen. Nor will that Russian money be used to pay any debts, by the way, it will only be used to add to foreign currency funds. Lack of currency funds is the only issue at the moment for the nation, not debts.

The point is "our government is extremely wealthy" just by itself doesn't give any information. Your government is (like most others) indebted. That's not the definition of wealth.

I believe they did translate your pm's statement correctly, maybe I just represented it wrongly here.
There was a (very small) danger of bakruptcy and that is why certain steps were taken.

But I do see a problem in that your banks, which seem to be an important factor of your economy, rely heavily on other countries for their funds.
And when your government now says they will not guarantee for the debts people will not be less inclined to do business with them.

I didn't at all, as a matter of fact I have said many times immigrants are indeed good for the economy, That's proven data.

BUT...They are short term, the impact they have when they start breeding (over a period of time), language barriers, and how those people then go on to affect housing prices, NHS, schools and the national identity of the UK has a devastating effect, which is not yet being fully measured.

trust me, shit will hit the fan in the UK and many other places when times get harder and indigenous people start to realise that a large % of immigrants are a bigger than what they were from a time when everything was rosey.

Stop trying to tell me about my own country. No fucker goes to Iceland, if a few million immigrants turned up in Iceland tomorrow your population would shit the bed, your crime rate would fly through the roof and crap load more stuff.

Well seeing as a few millions would be more than the entire population of Iceland many times over only a complete idiot would make that argument. We do have our fair share of immigrants and we haven't shit ourselves over it.

Just because you have an intership at an office don't go thinking you know shit.

I'm right about immigration, over 75% of our country think so (and I wonder who the other % are) and this point was not related to economy. It was somethign totally seperate. You made the same error the bankrupt icelander made. Blinded by your opportunistic nature to get one over me time and time again, you allow me to point out your obvious mistakes and then you get a little bit more raged and look for another opportunity to redeem your lost ago.

By the way, I don't some Bankrupt Icelander and German advising me. Keep your flawed genes and opinions to yourself.

he'll say that's what he was stating and his original post was sarcasm!

he done that before when trying to argue the imdb top 250 list meant that the film was actually good (V for Vendetta was the case) he linked to a bbc article to prove his point where they actually slated the film and gave it a shoddy review with something like 2/5. google harder I guess.

which reminds me of the amazing '100,000 people voted they must be wrong' line he spouted :(

As you will see, from over 4200 votes the median vote is 4/5, but of course you would focus on a SINGLE review from an individual, I think that really highlights how biased, desperate and misrepresenting you are partcicually given the among of time.

So if you want to take a single persons review over a film over than of over 4000 then be my guest, but my general point was that Vendetta was a fairly popular and accomplished film, and every review of the film you will read will say the same thing.

1. Countries are not "owned" by other countries unless they're occupied.
2. Having a banking industry as big as Icelands compared to the rest of the national production usually simply means there is no other production and a bunch of people figured out how to be rich even if you just have a bunch of frozen rocks. It's a testament to their achievement not a "funney".

Were you sarcastic? Only reason they have banking industry as big, is because they took huge loans. And now when they cant get any new loans to pay back the old ones, they are bankrupt. I fail to see any achievement. Anyone can (or could) get a loan and buy a house they cant afford to pay ever. That doesnt mean they are rich, quite the opposite.

No, I wasn't. I have no fucking idea what the hell you're talking about.
"Only reason they have banking industry as big, is because they took huge loans."
Who "they"?
And no, taking loans isn't a reason why a banking industry would grow big. Banks give loans. Banks take deposits. They get rich off of redistributing resultant securities. Being able to do so cleverly enough to turn around as much money as they have is an achievement. The implosion of the system did not originate in Iceland, and in fact, they are more likely going to get the loan precisely because the Icelandic banks have been way more reliable as far as speculation and long term returns.

"They" being banking sector of Iceland. And like I said, reason why banking sector grew so much in Iceland (bigger than government) is because banks of Iceland went ape shit in the 90's when there was little or no regulations, that led to them having to cover all the bonds with foreign loans and to keep increasing their size to get more loans so they could float. Now when they cant get anymore loans from foreign monetary institutions (largely because of happenings elsewhere, but these happenings were not unexpected) they sank and the rest is history; government bails them and cant pay the debts and is facing a default unless russia or someone bails it out from coming a 3rd world country in monetary sense.

except banks in the 90's were government owned and they did certainly not go apeshit. It wasn't until 20003 the privatization process was complete. Also as i've told you before the government will not bail-out the banks. you should find a different blog.

A British government delegation left Iceland on Saturday having agreed ”in principle” that Iceland’s government will speed up the payback of British deposits trapped in Icesave, a subsidiary of Icelandic bank Landsbanki which collapsed last week.

from yesterday's news.
so far they will only pay up to 20.000€ and only for British Icebank Savings accounts, but who knows what else the future will bring.

I thought it wuold mean paying their debt's. Of course, so far I'm sure the bank still has enough liquidity left to pay out 20.000 per British savings account.
But they do give out more now, than they initially stated or rather allowed since they froze all the foreign accounts.

Our papers are slagging iceland off right left and centre and our GVT have frozen their assets, because they refuse to give back over 20 billion pounds, many of which is GVT accounts.

Surely not from the bestest country in the world.
Like I said all along (no on listens) Iceland is a self serving country, as soon as the wind changes they will, what else do you expect of a country spawned from cowardly immigrants?

I mean Labour aint very good at all, but i feel that in many ways the Tories are just playing the role of opposition. They find labour policies that arent popular and then attack labour over it. My fear is that in reality, the Tories endorse some of the policies and would likely take some of them further.

also, i really have doubts about DC being a good representative for Britain.

I don't think I will ever vote Torie, I don't feel like I can trust any of them and there doesn't seem to be much difference between Labour and the Conservatives, so I'd probably vote LibDem at the moment (Or perhaps Green!). They seem to have the most sensible outlook and policies at the moment.

But that's the problem with British politics really, everyone feels the need to align themselves with either Labour or Conservatives because every other party is more or less irrelevant.